Academic Board

VICE-CHANCELLOR’S ADVISORY GROUP (VCAG)
TERMS OF REFERENCE
1. TITLE OF GROUP
Vice-Chancellor’s Advisory Group (VCAG)
2. ESTABLISHMENT
The Vice-Chancellor’s Advisory Group is established under Part 3 Section 19(1) of the
Charles Darwin University Act (the Act).
3. FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The role of the Vice-Chancellor’s Advisory Group (VCAG) is to:
• Provide strategic and tactical advice to members relevant to their portfolio
responsibilities and to the Vice-Chancellor on whole-of university issues including
planning and resourcing;
• Review and endorse proposed policies, procedures and guidelines in respective
portfolios and those relevant to organisational change and renewal; and
• Review progress on major projects, operational priority plans and other plans.
4. COMPOSITION
The membership of the Vice-Chancellor’s Advisory Group includes:
• Vice-Chancellor (Chair)
• Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and International
• Executive Director, Corporate Services
• Executive Director, Financial and Asset Services
• Pro Vice-Chancellor, Engineering, Health, Science and the Environment
• Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous Leadership
• Pro Vice-Chancellor, Law, Education, Business and Arts
• Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning, Teaching and Community Engagement
• Pro Vice-Chancellor, VET
• Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Deputy Chair)
All members are expected to attend VCAG meetings. When a member is off-campus and
consequently unavailable to attend (and cannot attend by video or teleconference) an
alternate (and suitably senior) member may attend the meeting.
VCAG Subcommittees
VCAG has 9 subcommittees which meet on a minimum of 3 occasions per year. A report from
each of these subcommittee meetings is then submitted to the next VCAG meeting following
the subcommittee meeting, generally for noting. Often actions from a subcommittee will be
brought forward to VCAG, this is done with a coversheet attached to any documentation.
The VCAG subcommittees are as follows:
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• Capital Development and Space Management Committee
• Environmental Management Committee
• International Committee
• IT Governance Committee
• Mataranka Station Advisory Committee
• Risk Committee
• University Workplace Health and Safety Committee
• VET Strategic Workplace Asset Management Plan Working Group
• Vice-Chancellor’s Indigenous Advisory Council (VCIAC)
5. CHAIR
The Vice-Chancellor shall act as chair of the Vice-Chancellor’s Advisory Group. In the
absence of the Vice-Chancellor, the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor or the Deputy Vice-
Chancellor, Research and International will chair the meeting.
6. SECRETARY
The Director, Strategic Services and Governance will serve as the Executive Officer of the
committee.
7. TERM OF OFFICE
Not Applicable
8. QUORUM
Not Applicable
9. MEETINGS
VCAG shall meet on a fortnightly basis.
10. RESOLUTIONS OF THE VICE-CHANCELLOR’S ADVISORY GROUP
Matters requiring a resolution by VCAG are to be determined by consensus of the members
present.
11. AGENDA
The Executive Officer will issue a call for papers for the upcoming meeting of VCAG.
Documentation for inclusion in a VCAG meeting must be submitted by COB on the preceding
Wednesday. Any documents not available at that time should be submitted for a future
scheduled meeting.
The finalised agenda and documentation is circulated to members prior to the meeting of
VCAG.
Only with the Vice-Chancellor’s approval will a late paper be accepted for distribution prior to
a VCAG meeting or to be tabled at VCAG and in general, such late papers will require the
urgent consideration of the committee.
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The Vice-Chancellor and the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor will meet on the Thursday before
the VCAG meeting to consider submitted agenda items. Proposed agenda items may be
referred back to the proponent for further consideration or referred to another committee or
forum as appropriate. Similar items may be classified as ‘For discussion’ or ‘For noting’.
The VCAG submission coversheet must be submitted for all agenda items to provide a brief
summary of the major issues addressed in the paper, to summarise the background to the
paper and to outline the specific action required (the recommendations that VCAG is being
asked to consider). The coversheet is to be used as a primary reference document for
consideration of members. The length of the coversheet should be no more than two pages.
12. REPORTING
Items on the agenda are considered and discussed by the members at the time of the VCAG.
Any recommendations are put forward to the Vice-Chancellor (should the Vice-Chancellor be
absent).
The Executive Officer prepares a report of the meeting. The approved report is issued to
VCAG and follow-up action initiated with all parties.
Activities requiring future action will be recorded on the action sheet. Each activity will be
assigned a specific meeting date for providing the revised/updated paper or report on a
pending action. These items will be included on the agenda of the upcoming meeting. The
practice of detailed analysis of the action sheet will be discontinued unless specific requests
to discuss or update an item are raised by members.
The financial report on the University will be presented at the last VCAG meeting of the month
based on information from the prior month.
13 INTERPRETATION
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Document History and Version Control
Version Date Approved Approved by Brief Description
1.00 04 Aug 2010 Vice-Chancellor Creation of original document and
posting to CDU website
1.01 28 Dec 2010 Governance • Convert document to new
template
• Addition of VCAG
subcommittees: Mataranka
Station Advisory Committee
and Risk Committee.
• Change Indigenous
reference Group to Vice-
Chancellor’s Indigenous
Advisory Council to reflect
title change.
• Change Executive Dean to
Pro Vice-Chancellor to
reflect title change.
• Change Environmental
Sustainability Group to
Environmental
Management Committee to
reflect title change.
• Change PVC teaching and
Learning to PVC learning,
Teaching and Community
Engagement to reflect title
change.
• Change Executive Dean
Law, Business and Arts to
PVC Law, Education
Business and Arts to reflect
faculty name change.
• Change Executive Dean
Education Health and
science to PVC
Engineering, Health,
Science and the
Environment to reflect
faculty name change.
• Change Director, Strategic
Planning, projects and
Review to Director,
Strategic Services and
Governance to reflect title
change.
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